Story+1985-01-27+Syracuse,+NY

´´Here´s a song I guess about.....sometimes I get in my car at night and drive back home to my hometown....and uh....I guess the house that I grew up in....is a parking lot now....but.....I had this big tree in my frontyard....and it was just this, it was beautiful... and the tree´s still standing....except it´s got one big limb cut off....one big piece of it´s missing....and uh....I remember when I was a kid, like, playing around that tree, like, I knew every...every root, you know, every....everything about it....it seems like when you´re a kid....sometimes you have....you grow closer to things like that, like ´That´s my tree´....I remember laying face-down in the grass and stuff...and uh....sometimes you think you wanna go back, at least you wanna go back to some memory....of what it was like then....but uh....everybody needs some place they can go when they can´t go home....”
 * 27.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ‘The River’**

´´We got anybody over 30 years old out there tonight ? (cheers)...(?)...this is a song about, like....how you´re always going out on the weekend....you know, there´s always somebody coming up to me in a bar saying, like, ´Oh, Bruce....remember me ?....yeah, high school.... no (?) Bobby...remember, remember me ?....remember study hall ?...the guy that dumped the pizza on your head ?...yeah, that´s me, how you doing, how you doing ?´....´Oh yeah, yeah´ (chuckles)....there´s always somebody coming up telling you about, like, what a great time you had in high school all the time....I hated high school.....I´m still glad I don´t have to do no homework no more....(?) if there´s anybody, who´s still in high school out there ? (cheers) ....my people....oh, when you have to do no homework no more.....you´re never gonna forget it, never gets old (chuckles)....oh yeah....in high school, I was only interested in two things ....now, one was the guitar....and the other one was....that one, that one, yeah....of the two, the only one I became proficient at was the guitar....but the other one....I´m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise.....that´s my New Year´s resolution ....gonna get it right....right in ´85, that´s right....take some lessons from the Big Man (chuckles)...what you say (?)....”
 * 27.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´Glory Days´**

´´Yeah...oh....my best friend became....a father recently....so this is for Kate Landau....”
 * 27.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´The Promised Land´**

´´I guess after...was, I guess, in the year after ´Born to Run´-album came out, we came back from the tour....I was at home, I had a lot of time off....and I was....sitting around trying to think what I wanted to, what I wanted to write about, what I wanted my songs to be about, what I wanted our band to be about.....and I felt, all of a sudden I felt the responsobility of, of having an audience, people that.....that wanna listen to your records (?)....and uh.....I thought about it a lot, I guess....I knew that I wanted to write about struggle....because for everybody, I guess no matter what your position is .....it´s a pretty hard way to go a lot of times....and most of the time you gotta do it pretty much on your own.....but uh....there´s some people out there that have it a lot, s lot harder than others....there´s people whose basic needs every day....just aren´t being met, they´re not getting enough to eat, they don´t have a place to sleep...and uh....it´s hard to believe that in a country as rich.....as rich as America....that in every city and every state that there´s people that go hungry, there´s senior citizens....whose social security checks don´t get ´em through the month....the economic recovery is not reaching down to the people who need it the very most, the people at the bottom of the ladder...and....it seems like....somebody should try to do something....so tonight when you go out into the lobby, you´re gonna meet some folks that are trying to do some-thing about it....they´re from the Central New York Foodbank.....and what a foodbank is....is every year in America, 20 percent of all the food that gets produced just ends up wasted and thrown away....and what these people do is they go out and they get that food and they get it to the agencies that serve the people who need it the most....and uh....you kind of got an opportunity tonight because the.....foodbank that´s serving Syracuse here in the area, they´re just about, they´re brand-new, they´re just about to open, I think, in about ten days....so they´re at a point where they really could use some community support, they´re trying to make your town a better and a more decent place to live for all of you.....so.....when you go out there in the lobby tonight, see if you can check ´em out, you know, they....if you got just 25 cents...or, you know, if you got a dollar if you got somebody who knows where they could get hold of a forklift, they could use one....but if you get a chance, please, please check ´em out because they´re here....they´re trying to live up to their responsobility....as citizens of the state of New York and as Americans.....”
 * 27.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ‘My hometown’**

´´This happened a long time ago....in a land not too far from here....once upon a time.... (....) Well, now, there I was....I was still in high school but I wasn´t doing too good....I used to like daydream in class all the time....I´d get a desk by the window and I´d always be looking out the window....so they sent me down to the guidance counsellor ...oh damn (chuckles)....I walk in, he says...´Mr.Springsteen....are you back here again ?....what´s your problem ?´....I said ´Well, you see, Sir, it´s like, like I don´t know what I wanna do with myself, I don´t know what I wanna be....I got no direction in my life and I don´t know what I wanna do when I get out of school...I mean, that I need some faith, I need some hope, I need some, I need some confidence, uh, I need a date for Saturday night !´....he said, he said ´Oh, that´s too big a problem for me, I can´t help you out with that....so he sent me home, said ´You better go home and talk to your folks´....so I went home and I went in the kitchen and my father was sitting in the kitchen....I said ´Dad, you know, I got something., like, I gotta ....I gotta talk to you about....I´m getting into a lot of trouble in school....I don´t know if I´m gonna graduate, I don´t know what I wanna do with myself, I don´t know what I wanna be, you know, I, I got no direction, I need some faith, I need some hope and a close personal relationship with a member of the opposite sex !´....he just kind of looked at me and said ´Get me another beer out of the icebox´....so that was it, I decided I was gonna do myself in....I decided that life wasn´t worth living....and I´d had enough....I was gonna do myself off....so I decided, well, let me see, what am I gonna do ? I´m gonna drown myself, that´s it....so I get out on the highway and I hitchhike down towards the beach, I go to Asbury Park.....and uh, like, I had this phony I.D and I figured, well, before I was gonna drown myself, I was gonna stop in and see if this I.D worked and get a drink.first.....so I went into this little bar....across the street from the ocean and....went in the men´s room.....and upon the men´s room wall it said.... ´Advice and answers to all problems, big or small, just dial this number...satisfaction guaranteed´....so I got a dime and I went out and I dialed the number....rang once....rang twice....and I heard....(Clarence: ´Hello´)....It was some guy called Clarence ´He-who-knows-all´ Clemons on the line....so like, I told him a little bit about my problem and he said he thought he could help me out so he gave me his address, I hitchhiked over to his house....knocked on the door....door opened up, we kind of checked each other out a little bit....we decided that we´d make a good team and we became partners .....and now, now, Clarence, you see, he was having trouble of his own and he had just been to see the gypsy and the gypsy sold him this map to the secret of the world and according to Clarence, if we followed this map at midnight, we´d find out the answer to all our troubles ....so that night we packed up the car....with a lot of peanutbutter-and-jelly sandwiches.... it was his old Oldsmobile and we started driving south down through Freehold....down Route 9 ....down through Lakewood....down through Toms River....down deep into the pines of Jersey....and then the rain started coming down....and then hailstones as big as baseballs started hitting us....and then a blizzard came along and blew across the highway....and then a tornado blew the roof off the car....and then the engine block cracked and then we had two flat tires and then a hurricane came up and wiped us off the road and then and then and then....the radio broke !!!!....there we were parked by the side of the road and according to Clarence´s map what we were looking for was just on the other side of those woods....so into the forest we went....it was scary in there.....we came upon this big shade tree.....we could tell it was a shade tree because....it had its shades on....then we started hearing sounds like werewolves coming up (crowd howls)....and then we heard like lions roaring in the darkness (crowd roars)....and we heard homicidal cows mooing at us (crowd moos)....and mad dogs barking like crazy (crowd barks)....and then, and then worst of all, we kept hearing that the theme from ´Entertainment Tonight´, oh, no, no!....now, Big Man, there ain´t.....there ain´t no beasts in these woods, is there ?....I ain´t ever heard of nobody getting ate alive in New Jersey ....and I ain´t never heard of Jersey Devil and stuff....never heard of nobody getting like ate by like, you know (?)....I think I hear something behind us....I think I hear something behind us....I think I hear something behind us.....whooa! and all of a sudden there was this big man-eating bear but, but instead of jumping on us and making us his dinner, he was acting kind of friendly....and he said that he wasn´t mean that he was just lonely....and that he´d run away from the circus where they´d been keeping him in these cages and that if we´d be his friends, he´d help us, he´d help us find what we were looking for....I could tell by his hat that he was smarter than the average bear....and so we made friends with the grizzly bear and he took us back into the woods.....and all of a sudden the clouds pulled away from the moon .... and there in the clearing, we saw the answer to our quest....then we knew that everything was gonna be all right....because when....when....when.....when we touched...”
 * 27.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´Growin´Up´**

´´I guess it was around....it was around the end of the summer....it was about, I guess, ten years ago now....and uh, I remember ´cause I had....it was just starting to get cold and I had this old Camaro that I´d bought for 500 dollars....and uh....and the roof wouldn´t go up on it ....so you got some of those early nights when it´d get cold (?)....I´d bundle up, I had a sweatshirt, a couple of sweatshirts and a leather jacket on over top of it....I would get in and ride around in the dark.....and uh, used to be this strip down by the river where we´d all.... meet on the weekends, I guess it was like kind of a junkyard where people from town had gone down and dumped off things they didn´t want no more....leave ´em there to rust....was a little clearing where we´d get together.....and that was the first place that I met her.....and uh, when we first started going out, it was like, uh.....it was kind of like it always is, you know, it´s a lot of fun all the time....laughing, everything, everything is great....and uh, I guess time passes, sometimes people change and sometimes they don´t change together....but the things that made her happy one time....didn´t seem to make her happy any more....and I was spending most of my time trying to figure out what it was....that I could do to make her happy....but uh....she got to where she didn´t talk too much and she wanted to stay in a lot.... and she´d put my keys away, hide ´em at night so I couldn´t take the, take the car out.....and, uh, I don´t know maybe sometimes people....they expect too much....from each other....but it got hard to make her understand that when I took the car out....and maybe it seemed stupid ....but when I took it out and when I won....it was the only time I got to feeling...good about myself....and it might´ve seemed dumb to other people but it....it didn´t seem dumb to me.... and it seems that if you got one thing in your whole life that you do....that makes you feel proud of yourself....I don´t think that´s too much for anybody to ask..... (...) Well, that was the night that we, that we left....we still don´t know where we´re going yet....but I guess that´ll come in time.....and sometimes it seems like time gets running so short on you....and there´s not much you can do....but to keep going....and to keep on searching....and keep on going....and keep on going....keep on going....and you keep on going....you keep on going....”
 * 27.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´Racing in the Street´**

´´Thanks a lot....I´d like to just take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to these two shows that we did here in Syracuse....these are the biggest shows that we´ve ever done and it´s meant a lot to us (?)....This is also our, our last night in the States for quite a while.... and uh...and I´d like to just take a minute and thank, uh....thank my road crew who, who since June been doing such a fantastic job....and uh....I also like to thank, you know, you guys that hang out there in line for three hours, four hours.....and uh....I guess I´d also like to say that after we´re gone, the Central, Foodbank of Central New York will still be here and working in your town....and trying to....just trying to make New York state just a fairer place to live....for everybody....´cause in the end, nobody wins unless everybody wins.....”
 * 27.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´Can´t Help Falling in Love with You**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//